A collection of podcasts exploring the culture in pop culture. Our shows range from the general (flagship show The Chronic Rift) to the specific (The Batcave Podcast). We look at literature (Dead Kitchen Radio), movies (The Weekly Podioplex), family (Generations Geek), gaming (The Cardboard Jungle), and more.

27:00 - Andrea reviews The Black Dove, part of the Holmes on the Range western mystery series.

35:06 - Spoiler Alert! Keith talks about this year's Doctor Who special, "The Next Doctor".

48:14 - Jay Smith briefly explains his new segment, "My Guilty Pleasure" and makes a plea for blood donations during this holiday season. You can get more information on where to donate blood by visiting givelife.org.

Glenn Hauman fulfills one of the unspoken staffing requirements at a comics company. "Dwayne McDuffie at Milestone, Mike Richardson at Dark Horse, Denis Kitchen at Kitchen Sink, Jim Shooter at Marvel and Valiant-- every comics company needs to have at least one ridiculously tall guy on it. With me on board, we'll have somebody who can change light bulbs and play center for the inter-company baseball league."

When he was in junior high school, Glenn took art lessons from John Buscema, the legendary (and quite tall) Marvel Comics artist. "I knew I could never draw like that that," he says. Instead, he found other ways to make comics his career, starting with working in a local comic shop in high school, and then the production department at DC Comics.

He has fifteen years of experience in publishing, including work for Random House, Simon & Schuster, DC Comics and Apple Comics. Mr. Hauman has worked as a graphic designer, editor, photo retoucher, CD-ROM producer, story consultant for films, and radio show co-host of "Destinies - The Voice of Science Fiction" on WUSB 90.1 FM at SUNY/Stony Brook.

His latest Star Trek e-book, Creative Couplings, has been getting press coverage for its portrayal of the first Klingon-Jewish wedding. In addition to Star Trek, he's written other licensed tie-in works for X-Men and Farscape, and urban fantasy for Baen Books.He has been a featured speaker on the future of publishing at numerous industry trade shows. He was a founder of internet pioneer companies BiblioBytes, Hell's Kitchen Systems (bought by Red Hat in 2000), and Lot Auctions.Most recently, Glenn has been working as a webmaster, assistant editor, and production manager for arrogantMGMS, a comics packing company now involved with ComicMix. Glenn manages theirGrimJack.com, JonSable.com, MundensBar.com websites; he also runs the websites for comic book prosPeterDavid.net and BobGreenberger.com.

"My career is the definition of varied, and the one constant is that I find myself doing something new that still draws on past experiences," Hauman said. "I can't imagine something that draws on all the things I've done and all the things I want to do more than ComicMix."

John and Jay Smith are joined by Merchant Wares owner Rebecca Kindergan to discuss the fundamentals of this unique gaming platform. Make sure you rate the episode below and take the time to comment on it here.

Rebecca Kindergan has been larping for over 14 years and runs an online and event-based Larp Supply and Costuming company, www.merchantswares.com, from her home in the hills of northern NJ. When she's not sewing, making boffer weapons, or preparing for events, you can usually find her chasing mythical monsters with foam weapons for their gold pieces. Otherwise, she's an avid hiker, fisherwoman, Queen of Road Trips and just hanging out at home with her husband, Brian and their pet catfish. In the quest for larping, she's been to Nero in many places, including Nevada and New Brunswick Canada, as well as all over the northeast and East Coast. Currently, she plays Nero, Equinox, Knight Realms, Madrigal, and is always looking for more larps to try out.